Phony check ring canceled in Barrow County

Fraud arrest

STATHAM -- Barrow County sheriff's deputies busted a check fraud ring Thursday, arresting seven men after one tried to pass a $9,000 check at the People's Bank in Statham.

Sheriff's Capt. Barry Mallek said the group may have gotten as much as $90,000 from three other People's Bank locations in Barrow County over the past few weeks by passing checks that had been printed in the name of a Barrow County business, which he wouldn't identify.

According to Mallek, the group probably had access to one of the company's real checks to use as an example for printing up the bogus checks. Check paper is fairly easy to find in office supply stores, he said.

Deputies were waiting for the group on Thursday, Mallek said.

''We had a deployment plan,'' he said. ''Any bank they were going to hit we were to converge. I don't think they knew what hit 'em.''

Mallek said one man entered the Statham bank to try to cash the check late Thursday morning while six others sat nearby in a truck from a Chamblee rental center, two in the cab and four in the cargo area.

Deputies, who staked out banks in Statham and across the county, quickly apprehended the man who entered the bank.

The six men in the rental truck had a short-lived getaway. Mallek said they took off and got a few miles west of Statham on Georgia Highway 8 before reaching a roadblock deputies set specifically for them. All were then arrested without incident and, before being taken away, could be seen by passers-by sitting beside the road in handcuffs.

Mallek said he believes the men are from the Atlanta area, but he hadn't confirmed their identities.

''There's still a distinct possibility they have phony ID,'' he said.

Mallek was unsure of the roles of the seven men in the check scam, or the role of the rental truck in the crime.

''That's what we're trying to figure out right now,'' he said.

The men are believed to be a part of a much larger fraud ring based in Atlanta, and deputies plan to seek search warrants there as the investigation continues.

''We've got reason to believe, definitely, it was done by an organized group that has access to check paper,'' Mallek said. ''You can get that at Office Depot or other computer stores. One of the men had to have had access to an actual check from the business.''